


Just a Little On Edge

by SansyFresh



Series: Fresh's Babble Collection [22]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Fell has a tail, Fell has severe anxiety, Fluff, M/M, On the surface, Panic Attacks, Red is fed up with Stretch, Stretch is a dick, mention of self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 07:16:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10894413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansyFresh/pseuds/SansyFresh
Summary: Red has been trying to convince Stretch for a while that his brother is not abusive, but the stupid idiot just won't listen. What better way to show him than to bring him home?





	Just a Little On Edge

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is based on one of my personal headcanons and a recent favorite trope of mine (thank you, Lady Kit), being "Dick Stretch thinks Fell is abusive, BUT HE IS NOT."
> 
> The headcanon is that, instead of Red remaining anxiety-ridden, even once on the Surface, he eventually gets better. Instead, it is Fell who develops severe anxiety from his time spent Underground constantly paranoid of monsters either attempting to attack him or dust his brother. Losing Red terrifies him. So, eventually all that suppressed emotion and fear comes out all at once and he can't really deal with it.
> 
> Also Fell has a tail. Because skeles with tails.
> 
> Slight trigger warning for Self Harm mention.

He could not understand, for the life of him, why he had agreed to do this. Stretch fiddled with the box of cigarettes in his hoody pocket, brow furrowed as Red continued to talk to Blue on the phone, explaining that he and Stretch would be gone for the next couple days. Red commuted back and forth from visiting the Swap brothers and living with his own asshole of a brother on a weekly basis, but this time he had wanted Stretch to come back to the Fell brother’s home with him.

 

Stretch had his suspicions as to why Red was so adamant he come with, and as much as he hoped they weren’t true he had seen proof first hand that Fell was anything but a loving brother. That Red would show up with numerous bruises and cuts on some weeks still put a fire in his marrow, but Red was insistent that his brother was not abusive. They had even fought over the issue at one point, after which Stretch had dropped the subject. But if Red was wanting him to come over to witness anything, he would be more than ready to help.

 

But now they were standing outside of the Fell house, Red finally finishing with his call and slipping his cell in his pocket with a slight smirk on his face, not a care in the world. Which, if Red really wasn’t in any danger, then why the fuck was he here?

 

“I’ll probably need to head to the store, I doubt the Boss has any food in the house.” Red fished his key from his inventory and let Stretch inside, ignoring the look of slight disbelief on his face. “You might as well get comfortable, I’m gonna go see what we need. I’ll be back later, try not to kill each other.” Red gave a wink as he disappeared into the kitchen, Stretch rolling his eyelights. He relaxed back into the couch, hearing the telltale pop of a shortcut a few minutes later.

 

The house was silent for a while, the only sounds coming from what seemed to be a leaky faucet in some random room and the ticking of a small clock on the wall. He sighed, quickly becoming bored and deciding that if he got caught smoking, Fell could just go fuck himself.

 

He slipped a cig from the carton, propped it between his teeth, and was about to flick his lighter when he heard a loud thump from upstairs. He paused for a moment, then decided it was nothing and went to light up again, only for the sound to repeat itself. _I guess Fell is home after all._ Stretch thought with a scowl, eyelights glaring at the staircase that lead upstairs. He was about to call out when the thump sounded again, this time louder, and didn’t stop. It was an almost steady beat, occasionally breaking pace to be softer or more urgent.

 

It didn’t take long for it to get on his non-existent nerves, Stretch re-pocketing his cig and hopping up, stomping up the stairs with a vengeance. He didn’t care how badly Red would beat him up, Fell was asking to get the everloving shit kicked outta him. He made his way down the hall and past a bathroom, then finally down to a set of doors. One was open and was very obviously Red’s room, if the mustard-yellow socks laying around everywhere were an indicator. The other door was closed and only barely muffled the annoying banging now that he was up here.

 

“FuckFell, what the hell are you-!” Stretch kicked the door open, to hell with the asshole’s privacy, and stormed inside, prepared to find the ex-Captain throwing attacks around or hitting shit for no reason. It really wouldn’t have surprised him. But instead of a towering, angry, pissed off skeleton who should have been screaming at him for coming in his room, he found his alternate in the corner of the room, arms wrapped tightly around his torso with his knees tucked up to his chest.

 

The thumping noise came from a large, bony tail that was agitatedly hitting the wall. Fell’s breaths were shallow and fast, his eyelights all but gone from his sockets. Stretch knew what this was, had been in enough of his own to immediately place what Fell was currently dealing with. But it was _Fell_ . Fell shouldn’t be having a panic attack, shouldn’t look that scared, that broken. Stretch shouldn’t have been able to see that much of _himself_ in the scarred skeleton, but he did and it scared him.

 

He stood there for a moment, everything he thought about the trembling figure before him vanishing in the deep recesses of his mind as he tried to figure out what the fuck he was supposed to do. A more vengeful part of him whispered that it wasn’t his job to make the fucker feel better, not after what he had done to Red. But the more he studied his double, the more he realized he couldn’t just fucking _leave_ him there to suffer.

 

So, after a moment’s hesitation, he inched his way towards the other, hands held up where Fell would see them if he noticed him. “Hey Fell? Papyrus? Hey, you’re okay. You’re safe, Sans is safe, there’s nothing here to hurt you.” It felt weird to say his own name, almost as weird as comforting him. He was only guessing what could have triggered an attack this badly, but for the most part he just wanted Fell to know he was there, that he wasn’t going to be hurt. Though, with how many times they had fought in the past, perhaps Stretch being there wasn’t a great plan…

 

He inched closer, until he was finally close enough to see the long marks up the other’s wrists, each barely deep enough for marrow to bubble up. He hissed; yet another sign he really didn’t understand the skeleton before him. The tail Stretch really hadn’t had time to marvel at was still thumping the wall at a somewhat steady rate, through it seemed the closer Stretch got the faster it went.

 

So Fell knew he was there, if only at a basic level. Fell was out of it otherwise, sockets staring vacantly out into the room, his bones rattling as he shook. Stretch watched him for a moment, knelt down on one knee, before deciding that Fell would probably hurt himself hitting the wall over and over again like that. Looking around for a moment, Stretch finally just slipped off his hoody, waiting for the tail to curl closer to Fell before throwing the dull orange cloth over it and holding it still.

 

The reaction was immediate. Fell stiffened up, sockets suddenly filled with jittery, crimson eyelights and red tears, his body almost painfully pushing itself further into the corner. What made Stretch nearly drop the slightly flailing tail he was keeping safe, however, was the shaky, terror filled words Fell finally spoke.

 

“P-please don’t kill me, please d-don’t hurt m-me, I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean t-t-to, I-I swear, please-”

 

The sickening begging went on and on, though Stretch soon discovered that Fell still didn’t see him, really. Fell begged whoever he thought was attacking him, begged them to spare him, spare his brother, begged for his life over and over again. It was a sight Stretch had both never expected to see and never wanted to see ever again. To see the Great and Terrible Fell brought down to this sniveling form before him...what the fuck had happened to make him like this?

 

“Boss?” Stretch startled at the sudden voice behind him, his hands tightening marginally on the tail he still held. Fell whined pitifully in response and Stretch instantly eased up, though he looked back towards the door to find Red standing there with a thoughtful look on his face. The relief he felt was almost stupidly strong.

 

“Red! There’s something fucking wrong with your brother, he’s in a fucking panic attack and-” Stretch was cut off by a small, sad smile from his friend, who had come over as soon as Fell had whimpered. Red knelt beside him, taking in his brother fully, though he didn’t seem surprised. Stretch blinked, before his sockets narrowed slightly. “You knew already.” Red nodded.

 

“Yeah, he messaged me last night and said he felt one coming on. I needed you to fucking get it through your thick-ass skull that my brother isn’t fucking abusive, so here we are. Didn’t think he’d be this bad off though.” Red looked concerned, his sockets narrowed as he took in his little brother’s form fully, his eyelights falling on Stretch hands finally. “Thank you for keeping him from hurting himself, for the most part at least. He does it to ground himself, but uh…” There was a dark chuckle before he continued. “Looks like that didn’t work to well this time.”

 

Stretch couldn’t help but shiver at Red’s tone, sensing a serious talk in Fell’s future. He watched, fascinated, as Red began to reach out to the other, glowing red magic flowing over his fingers.

 

“Hey little bro. I’m here, you really worked yourself up this time, didn’t ya?” Red chuckled. “Well, at least Swapshit was here to help out this time, huh? Helped you from fracturing your damn tail again.” Red had laid one hand on Fell’s skull, soothingly petting him. Fell whimpered at first, though as his body registered the magic his whispered pleas soon quieted. Red gave Stretch a hard stare for a moment, making sure he had his attention before whispering “Not a word.” Stretch nodded, though as Red continued he felt a yelp tear at his throat.

 

Red shoved his hand up his brother’s ribcage and, after a long moment, Fell’s chest lit up with a bright crimson glow. Then, seemingly without a care in the world, Red palmed it and drew it out, his hand still keeping up the gentle petting. Stretch bit down a protest; his friend knew what he was doing.

 

“Okay little bro, I want you to listen to me, okay?” Red whispered to the soul he held, Fell having no choice but to listen to whatever his brother had to say. The small nod in response, however, put a smile on Red’s face. “We are not Underground. We are not in Snowdin, you are not Captain of the Guard. I am not in danger, you are not in danger. We are on the Surface. We live in a shitty house, and you’ve learned to actually cook more than shitty lasagna. We’ve made friends with the Swap brothers. Swapshit is right here, worried about you, even if the asshole won’t admit it.” Stretch blushed and glowered at the other, who just chuckled.

 

Fell’s breathing had calmed, his trembling lessened greatly. Red continued to repeat his words until Fell’s bones laxed, his curled form slowly relaxing. Finally, finally, Fell’s eyelights seemed to sharpen a little, staring at his brother. He lifted a shaky hand and rubbed at his tear-stained face, before gently sitting up. Red smiled softly, releasing his brother’s soul and allowing it to float back to where it belonged.

 

“How ya doin’, bro?” Stretch had already released the other, his hoody slipped back on as Fell showed signs of coming out of it. He felt a bit intrusive now, though his desire to stay put overruled any desire to leave the room. Red still seemed worried, though Fell was still studiously wiping at his face.

 

“I am b-better. Thank you brother.” Fell’s voice was filled with embarrassment, and it was obvious as to why. If it was any other reason, Stretch would have taken the opportunity to jab at the other's weakness. As it was, after what he’d witnessed, there was no fucking way he’d be able to look at Fell the same way. So he decided to do what he did best, and get Fell’s mind off his “shame”.

 

“Nice tail you got there, I didn’t know you had one.” Stretch kept his voice light and non-judgmental, eyelights locked on Fell’s. He found he liked the small blush that erupted over the other’s face.

 

“I usually hide it. It likes to get in the way at the exact right moments.”

 

Red smiled and stood as his best friend and his brother began to talk, Stretch seemingly finally having understood what Red had hoped for a long time he would. He watched for a moment, finding that the longer they talked the more animated his little brother got. Red nodded to himself, before going downstairs to make some food. He was glad they were finally getting along; trying to convince others that your brother wasn’t abusing you got a bit tiresome.

  
Well. Now at least Stretch understood. Maybe now the two of them would deal with all that damn sexual tension they had built up. Wouldn’t that be great.


End file.
